Yahoo! Messenger
Launches ``IMVironments'' With Next Generation of Yahoo!
Messenger Service; First Interactive, Multimedia
Experience Delivered Within Yahoo! Messenger Window
Yahoo!
Inc.
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Best-of-Breed Marketing Partners Including Dilbert,
Garbage, Nintendo of America Inc., PEANUTS, and Sanrio
Sign On for First Instant Messaging Viral Marketing Tool
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Yahoo! Messenger Users Send 5.5 Billion Messages in
September
Yahoo!
Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global communications,
commerce and media company, today announced the next
generation of its popular Yahoo!(R) Messenger (http://messenger.yahoo.com) service now enhanced
with IMVironments(TM), a patent-pending technology that
makes real-time communications even more personalized and
expressive.
Yahoo!
Messenger IMVironments -- "instant messaging
environments" -- are interactive, themed backgrounds
for Yahoo! Messenger conversations that appear directly
in the instant messaging (IM) window and are shared
virally among friends. IM is no longer restricted to just
text and video, and with the latest version of Yahoo!
Messenger, the instant messaging screen is being used in
revolutionary new ways. By sending an IMVironment,
friends can now select and share unique images and
animated graphics, as well as video and music clips that
appear directly on the IM screen without having to launch
a new window or link to another site. IMVironments with
music themes, such as the band Garbage's, let fans
connect with their favorite bands by sharing and
listening to the latest single, viewing a photomontage of
an artist, watching the newest video and even purchasing
CDs. Plus, people can play interactive games directly
through IMVironments by selecting Yahoo! Fighter, an
interactive game played and viewed by friends in
real-time while simultaneously having a text
conversation.
"With
the introduction of IMVironments, we are the first to
offer a truly interactive instant messaging experience,
and have created an innovative new way to use Yahoo!
Messenger as a complete viral marketing solution,"
said Lisa Pollock, director of messaging products at
Yahoo!. "IMVironments offer our users a level of
personalization that is not available through any other
instant messaging service, and at the same time, provides
a new means for companies to reach their target
audience."
All On-Board: Best-of-Breed
Marketing Partners Sign On
Top flight marketing partners
including Ch@tAbles, Dilbert(TM), Garbage, Nintendo of
America Inc., PEANUTS(TM), and Sanrio have signed on with
Yahoo! Messenger IMVironments to reach Yahoo!'s large and
rapidly growing instant messaging audience through the
industry's first interactive, viral marketing tool. By
collaborating with each company to customize their Yahoo!
Messenger IMVironment with relevant marketing themes,
first-ever interactive peer-entertainment tools,
innovative multimedia effects, and unique layout designs,
Yahoo! continues to be the Internet's partner of choice
for creating essential marketing solutions.
"The
Sanrio experience is all about friends communicating with
friends. Instant messaging is just that, empowering them
to stay in touch and share a frequent 'hello,'" said
Bill Hensley, Sanrio marketing director. "As a
featured Yahoo! Messenger IMVironment, Hello Kitty adds
her special charm to this new viral technology, helping
friends speak from the heart. The Yahoo!-Sanrio marketing
partnership is extremely beneficial to our business by
delivering our characters and brands directly to our
target audience."
The Background on IMVironments
From blowing a cyber kiss to
having a virtual snowball fight, users can pick from
several fun, unique and interactive IMVironments
including:
Ch@tAbles
-- This IMVironment goes Hollywood, as humorous
celebrity sayings accompany dozens of animated emoticons.
People
can also share music clips, video celebrity interviews
and movie
trailers all within the window of this IMVironment.
Garbage -- While watching and sharing an exclusive
photomontage of
the band Garbage, people can now listen to Garbage's
newest
single, "Androgyny," directly from the Yahoo!
Messenger window.
Fans can also link directly to Yahoo! Music
(http://music.yahoo.com) through this
IMVironment to buy Garbage's
newest CD.
Last Shot -- People can now see their conversations
unfold panel
by panel as each instant message conversation creates a
new scene
from this popular comic series.
Nintendo Screenshots of the upcoming game, Super Smash
Bros.
Melee, can be previewed and sent through this
IMVironment. Gaming
fans can also become any of Nintendo's 13 most popular
characters
including Mario and Pikachu when instant messaging their
friends.
PEANUTS -- While an animated Woodstock flutters across
the Yahoo!
Messenger window, people can now see Snoopy type along
with their
friends as messages are being composed.
Sanrio -- Sanrio enthusiasts can invite Hello Kitty(R) to
brighten
their Yahoo! Messenger window, and replace the classic
Yahoo!
Messenger emoticons with exclusive Hello Kitty, Thomas
the Bear,
Joey the Mouse, and Fifi the Sheep characters.
Yahoo! Fighter -- Friends suddenly become
"players" when battling
one another in this Yahoo! Fighter IMVironment, bringing
interactive gaming to the Yahoo! Messenger window.
Other
fun IMVironments include romantic falling hearts, a
Zen-like fish tank, a winter wonderland, and a patriotic
tribute to the American flag that allows users to donate
to the American Red Cross and/or Salvation Army directly
from the Yahoo! Messenger window. Every month, Yahoo!
Messenger will introduce new IMVironments for its
millions of users to enjoy and share with their friends.
More New Features
The
Yahoo! Magic Crystal Ball -- Yahoo! Messenger has created
the
first-ever graphical instant messaging "bot"
for users to seek
answers to any questions they dare to ask. People can
simply add
"magiccrystalball" to their Friends List to
begin the adventure.
New Emoticons -- Yahoo! Messenger now has four new
emoticons to
tell friends when they want their friends to be quiet,
when they
are fed up, when they're feeling ill, or when they are
just
clowning around.
Yahoo! Insider -- With all the new features available on
Yahoo!
Messenger and the Yahoo! network, people now have an easy
way to
get the latest scoop on their favorite Yahoo! services.
Typing Notification -- Now people can see when their
friends are
typing a message to them. The typing notification will
appear in
the status bar at the bottom of the instant message
window.
Get
the Message? More Messages Sent Than Ever!
Yahoo! Messenger continues to be
a clear leader in the instant messaging industry with
users sending 5.5 billion messages in September 2001/a,
increasing 115 percent over the past year. According to
the latest data released by Media Metrix Inc., Yahoo!
Messenger is the fastest growing instant messaging
service, increasing 43 percent in total usage minutes
over the past six months./b Additionally, Yahoo!
Messenger is the only instant messaging service where
time spent per user has grown over the past six months,
up 22 percent, while MSN and AIM have declined (-14
percent and -8 percent respectively)./c Also known as
"stickiness," time spent per user is a key
indicator of actual usage for messenger applications, as
opposed to the unique user metric that may be skewed by
the number of pre-loaded instant messenger applications
on a desktop.
"We
are keenly focused on our users' needs, and will continue
to introduce even more innovative features that add real
value to people's Yahoo! Messenger experience by
leveraging our creative spirit, technological expertise,
and deep understanding of online communications,"
added Pollock. "In spite of the distribution and
bundling strategies we have seen as part of the so-called
'IM Wars,' we are confident that people will continue to
use the instant messaging service they know and trust --
and people trust Yahoo!."
About Yahoo! Messenger
Yahoo! Messenger is one of the
most popular instant messaging, information,
communications, and notification services on the
Internet. Yahoo! Messenger lets people send free instant
text and voice messages, as well as make affordable
PC-to-phone calls anywhere in the world. Yahoo! Messenger
was the first IM provider to offer Webcam functionality.
It is fully integrated with Yahoo!'s suite of
communications services to provide up-to-the-minute
alerts on stocks and sports scores, notification of
important meetings on Yahoo! Calendar, access to Yahoo!
Chat rooms, Yahoo! Games and much more. Yahoo! Messenger
is accessible from your personal computer and through
wireless devices such as Palm Pilots, WinCE devices,
mobile phones and pagers.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global
Internet communications, commerce and media company that
offers a comprehensive branded network of services to
more than 210 million individuals each month worldwide.
As the first online navigational guide to the Web, www.yahoo.com is the leading guide in
terms of traffic, advertising, household and business
user reach. Yahoo! is the No. 1 Internet brand globally
and reaches the largest audience worldwide. The company
also provides online business and enterprise services
designed to enhance the productivity and Web presence of
Yahoo!'s clients. These services include Corporate
Yahoo!, a popular customized enterprise portal solution;
audio and video streaming; store hosting and management;
and Web site tools and services. The company's global Web
network includes 24 World properties. Headquartered in
Sunnyvale, Calif., Yahoo! has offices in Europe, Asia,
Latin America, Australia, Canada and the United States.
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